Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. Harriet Van Horne

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Monthly Archives: May 2013

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The first summer we lived in TN, we invited a couple of students over for dinner to get to know them better. I put this salad together, and it was dubbed “THE Salad”.

According to R, THE Salad tasted like summer. Every time R comes home from college, we intend to have dinner and make THE Salad again, but it has yet to happen. I will forever remember our evening spent talking and laughing around the table while enjoying THE Salad.

For the croutons: I had some cubed focaccia bread in the freezer to make breadcrumbs or croutons out of. I tossed them in a couple splashes of olive oil and toasted them in a 400 degree oven for 10 min.

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Have I mentioned we’re on a heavy rotation of chicken? I’m hoping as long as I dress it up in different ways, husband won’t mind too much. And I’m realizing I need to branch out a bit, maybe even try my hand at a few fish recipes.

Latin Baked Chicken

Combine lime juice, soy sauce, honey and chipotle in a large bowl. Add chicken and toss well to coat. Let stand 10 minutes at room temperature.

Arrange the chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray, reserving marinade. Bake at 400 degress for 15 minutes. Place reserved marinade in a blender, and process until smooth. Place purred marinade in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes.

Brush chicken with half of cooked sauce; return to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes; repeat with remaining marinade and bake another 10 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165.

This is the best kind of chicken recipe. Minimal ingredients, one bowl and one pan, and very tasty. If you’re using chicken breasts like I did, you will need to adjust your cooking time. In my oven, this took 20, maybe 22 minutes.

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Last fall, husband and I went out on a Saturday for some wandering. In our adventures, we came upon a small antique store and decided to see what treasures it might hold. Not surprisingly, I came home with a cook book. Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, Vol 1, A-F. If I’m reading the inside cover correctly, mine is from the sixth printing in 1957. It’s a worn out book, the printed spine is about to fall off and the previous owner left notes, newspaper clippings and other recipes tucked inside. Such a treasure to me.

We had some friends over for dinner a last week, and I thought the “Extra-Special Dark Chocolate Cake” would be the perfect dessert to serve to some extra special people.

Sift four, measure, re-sift 3 times with soda and salt. Put sugar through coarse sieve if lumpy. Cream shortening and sugar with wooden spoon until smooth and shiny. Remove spoon and use rotary beater to bean in egg and yolks, beating until smooth and fluffy.Remove beater and use spoon. Stir in chocolate and vanilla. – I used my stand mixer for all beating and stirring.

Add flour and milk alternating in 3 or 4 portions, beginning and ending with flour and beating until well-blended after each. Turn into prepared pans. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool in pans on cake racks 5 minutes, then turn out on racks, strip off paper and invert to finish cooling.

And what would chocolate cake be without a great frosting?? I used the Coffee Butter Frosting, from this same cookbook.

Coffee Butter Frosting

Add coffee to water and heat just to boiling; remove from heat, cover and let stand 2 min, then strain through fine sieve or cheese-cloth to remove all grounds. Cool before adding to frosting. – I had husband make me a shot of espresso. 🙂

Cream butter until smooth and shiny, gradually blend in sugar alternately with about 3 tblsp of the coffee. Then beat in the salt and the corn syrup until mixture has good spreading consistency.

Oh what a cake. The batter was almost the consistency of pudding, and I had to rinse out the bowl before I stuck my head in it to lick it clean. As you can see, the frosting wasn’t quite enough to cover both layers, but there was enough to make them stick. In the future I’d double all the ingredients for the frosting, except for the coffee and maybe add a bit of chocolate syrup to make more of a mocha flavor.

A slice of this cake and one of husband’s latte’s were a wonderful compliment of each other. And a perfect treat to share with our Extra-Special friends!

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So my lesson in life – If you’re not sure how long a new recipe will take, then don’t take on another new recipe at the same time. I started dinner late and wasn’t sure how the timing of everything would go, so I asked husband to step in and help, which he did. What a great guy.

Stir in broth. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until rice is almost tender.

Stir in peas and chopped pimiento. Cover and cook 2 to 4 minutes until rice is tender and all liquid has been absorbed. Rice grains will be slightly firm and separate, rather than soft and sticky.

Red rice. It looks a little “sticker” than the picture in the cookbook, but it was a great compliment to the Creamy Almond Chicken. In the future I’d add a little bit of tomato paste to bring out the red color and a splash or two of hot sauce to give it some heat.

Heat 1 tblsp of oil and butter in a deep, large skillet over medium heat until foam subsides. Place breasts in a single layer in the skillet without crowding. Cook 6 minutes or until chicken is light brown, turning once. Reduce heat if almonds get too dark. Remove chicken to plate. Repeat with any remaining chicken, adding oil if needed.

Add 1 tblsp of oil and onion to skillet. Cook and stir over medium heat 3 minutes or until onion is softened. Add chili, tomato and garlic. Cook and stir 1 minute. Add broth, salt and reserved almonds. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Return chicken to skillet. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is tender and juices run clear. Remove chicken to serving plate; cover and keep warm.

Add cream to broth mixture. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook and stir 3 to 5 minutes until sauce is slightly thickened. Pour over chicken when serving.

This chicken was good, but I would want to tweak it a little next time. I expected the roasted chili to add more heat, so I’m wondering if some cumin or chili powder in the sauce would give it the kick I’m looking for. But the sauce, Oh My, the sauce. All I wanted to do was add some cheese and make a queso out of it.

On Wednesday, I’ll be posting about the rice pictured here, Arroz Rojos.

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My subscription to Cooking Light ran out this month, and I’m not quite sure what to do. I love getting the magazine every month, gorgeous pictures, amazing food and most importantly, nutritional information. Husband has Type 2 diabetes, so I need to be aware of the carb amounts in our meals. On the other hand, I have stacks and stacks and stacks of magazines. They take up a lot of room and I could cook something different every day from now until forever with just the magazines I have in these stacks. What would you guys do?

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oats and hot water in a small bowl; set aside.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. In a medium bowl: combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer: combine brown sugar, applesauce, honey and eggs; beat on high for 1 minute. Add oat mixture; beat on low until well blended. Add half of flour mixture in two halves, combining well each time.

Spoon batter into an 11×7 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 48 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place dish on a wire rack. If you don’t have an 11×7 baking dish, you can sub a 9″ square baking dish.

To prepare the frosting:

Preheat broiler.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and honey; cook 2 minutes, or until bubbly, stirring constantly. Stir in almonds. Quickly pour frosting over cake, spreading evenly.

Broil cake 1 minute or until frosting is bubbly and golden. Cool completely on a wire rack. Serve with shipped cream, sprinkled with cinnamon.

I love everything about this dense, sticky-sweet cake. But it tastes like fall, so it feels a little out of place for dessert in early May. I’m thinking this will be perfect come mid October when the leaves start to change.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter over a gentle heat in a medium sized saucepan.

When the butter is melted, add the sugar, stirring with a wooden spoon (still over low heat) to help it blend with the melted butter.

(In a separate bowl.) Whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and pinch of salt, and then stir into the pan (butter mixture); when mixed (this will be a very dry mixture, and not wholly blended at this stage), remove pan from heat.

In a bowl or pitcher, whisk the eggs with the vanilla extract and then mix into the brownies mixture in the pan.

Stir in the chopped chocolate and quickly pour and scrape into a foil-lined baking pan, spreading the mixture with a spatula and cook in the preheated oven for approx 20-25 minutes. It will look set, dark and dry on top, but when you feel the surface, you will sense it is still wibbly underneath and a cake tester will come out grungy. This is desirable.

Transfer the pan to a rack to cool a little before cutting into 16 pieces and dusting with confectioner’s sugar. I love these gorgeously warm. But then again, I love them cold too. Actually, when cold they are properly speaking more brownie-like: gooily tender within and chewy on top.

Um, I think these are called ‘Everyday Brownies’ because now I want to eat a whole pan of these everyday. I halved the recipe and baked them in a 9 inch square pan. Half a recipe baked in 15 minutes. Who wouldn’t want to make a recipe that includes the word ‘wibbly’?

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I am a sucker for bargain books. Send me to Barnes & Noble with a $20 gift card, and it’ll take me a couple hours to decide which new books to claim as my own. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up Nigella Kitchen by Nigella Lawson for nine bucks! The next day was a lazy rainy Saturday and I got to spend a few hours reading through all her tips and amazing recipes. Here’s the first one I tried.

Chinatown Chicken Salad

If you’re using the wonton wrappers, begin by heating about 1/2 in oil in a frying pan.

Once the oil is hot, peel off the papery wrappers from the pack and add them, in batches of 3-4 at a time, to the pan. Be careful, they need just a few seconds a side to turn golden and will continue to darken as you remove them to a cookie sheet lined with some paper towels.

Continue cooking the wonton wrappers in batches until you have a baking sheet full of crisp golden squares. Let cool a little, while you get on with the salad they are to adorn.

In a large bowl, toss together the peanuts, lettuce, bean sprouts, scallions, red bell pepper and shredded cold chicken.

Add half the cooled wonton wrappers or tortilla chips (if using), breaking them into pieces into the bowl, then dress the salad, tossing again to mix before adding the other half of the crispy wonton wrappers and the chopped cilantro, sprinkling both on top. Serve at once.

This is a restaurant style salad, so good. Because it was just the two of us, I dressed the salads as I served them. In the future, I’d also wait to stir in the peanuts and wonton wrappers so any leftovers wouldn’t get soggy. And this dressing is good enough to make and just keep on hand all the time.

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At my church in California, we used Kings Hawaiian Bread for communion. Taking a small piece from the sweet loaf was a wonderful reminder of the sweet sacrifice made for me. I really wanted to try this recipe, but put it off because its a 7 hour process. Seven.Hours. But I had a free day and thought, “what the heck?”.

To make the sponge, stir together the flour, sugar and yeast in a small bowl. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are hydrated and make a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the sponge gets foamy and seems on the verge of collapse.

To make the dough, combine the sugar, salt, powdered milk, butter and shortening in a 4 quart mixing bowl (or bowl of an electric mixer). Cream together with a sturdy spoon ( or the paddle attachment) until smooth, then mix in the eggs and extracts. Knead by hand (or switch to the dough hook attachment) and mix in the sponge and the flour. Add the water, as needed to make a very soft dough. The finished dough should be very supple and soft, easy to knead, and not wet or sticky. It will take 10 to 12 minutes with the electric mixer and close to 15 minutes by hand to achieve this consistency. (Dough with high amounts of fat and sugar usually take longer to knead because the gluten requires more time to set up.) The finished dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 to 81 degrees. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

The most reliable method to determine when gluten development is sufficient is called the windowpane test, sometimes referred to as the membrane test. This is performed by cutting off a small piece of dough from the larger batch and gently stretching, pulling and turning it to see if it will hold a paper-thin, translucent membrane. If the dough falls apart before it makes this windowpane, continue mixing for another minute or two and test again.

Ferment at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide into 2 equal pieces. Form each of the pieces into a boule. Lightly oil two 9-inch pie pans and place 1 boule, seam side down, in each pan. Mist the dough with spray oil and loosely cover the pans with plastic wrap.

To form at Boule (Ball)a. Gather the dough to form a rough ball.b. To create surface tension, stretch the outside of the dough into a oblong shape, being careful not to squeeze out the gas trapped in the dough any more than necessary.c. Repeat this stretching motion, bringing the opposite ends together to make a ball. Tighten the surface tension by pinching to seal the bottom of the dough where the creases converge.d. Seat the boules aside for proofing or to rest for further shaping.

Proof at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or until the dough fills the pans fully, doubling in size and overlapping the edges slightly.

Very gently brush the loaves with the egg wash. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

Bake the loaves for 50 to 60 minutes, or until they register 190 in the center. After 30 minutes, check the loaves and rotate 180 degrees, if necessary for even baking. Because of the high amount of sugar, the dough will brown very quickly, but don’t be fooled into thinking it is done. It will get darker sa the center gradually catches up with the outside, but it will not burn. The final color will be a rich mahogany brown.

Remove the bread from the pie pans and place on a rack to cool The bread will soften as it cools, resulting in a very soft squishy loaf. Allow the bread to cool for at least 90 minutes before slicing or serving.

The name says it all, this is a sweet bread. Personally, I think its a little too sweet, but then I slathered on some butter and it all evened out. There is a suggestion in the book to use this bread as french toast, this WILL be happening soon. I would also like to try and use this dough for either dinner rolls or sandwich rolls.